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Chancellor Stanley Battle of A&T gave one heck of an opening day speech today that should have inspired students and faculty, but the community as well. It inspired me.

That story is being written and I'll link to it when it's there. Meanwhile, he referred to newspaper coverage when he came to Greensboro a year ago.

I walked into the middle of a storm. Everything about this university was being questioned... the way we conducted business, the way we handled our business, our business practices... We had had negative news stories published about us in the local paper 16 times --stories that also made the Chronicle of Higher Education and Diverse Issues in Higher Education.

I haven't counted; I'm impressed he did. It sounds bad, but as he readily acknowledges, A&T had issues. I hope that he agrees that they should have been written about. As he notes in his speech, A&T has cleaned them up.

As for his to-do list, he included this paragraph:

We will break free of constricted modes of thinking so we can respond to new challenges and opportunities without limitations and we will aggressively tell our own story. We will not allow ourselves to be defined by others. We will assertively court the media to publicize the positive things that are happening at North Carolina A&T and we will continue to enjoy strong and positive support from our alumni and our various public constituencies by making them active, involved participants in this campus community.

I say hear, hear.

I think.

I hope he means that A&T will be more open with all of its communications. We don't have difficulty getting information about stories that reflect positively on the state university. I have written often about A&T's opacity.

But A&T squeezes information that doesn't reflect positively tighter than the leash around John Edward's neck right now. I hope that Chancellor Battle's speech is a statement that that is in the past. After all, when a fire breaks out, you stop what you're doing and pour water on it. You don't wait until you're good and ready to find the hose.

As a state-funded university, A&T is accountable to its students and faculty, and to taxpayers and the public. When bad news comes, A&T's M.O. -- as with any tax-supported institution -- should be transparency.

I know that Chancellor Battle wants the university to define itself rather than, say, the newspaper. But I'll take a stab anyway. A good start would be a place that is supportive of intellectual freedom, the open inquiry of ideas, and following information wherever it takes you.

(Thanks to Brian for the tip.)